Wireless Glossary
- AES (Advanced Encryption Standard)
A federal information-coding protocol that ensures privacy via
128-, 192-, and 256-bit keys. AES is part of the forthcoming
802.11i specification.
- Centrino Intel's
wireless mobile technology, which integrates the company's
Pentium M chip, its 855 chipset, and the Intel PRO/Wireless
2100—an 802.11b wireless solution.
- DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol)
A standard that enables individual computers on an IP network to
retrieve their IP addresses and other settings from a server on
demand.
- DMZ (demilitarized zone)
A small network inserted as a neutral area between a company's
private network and the outside public network. It provides
indirect access to internal resources.
- 802.11e A
proposed IEEE standard that defines quality of service for
various types of applications, whether data, video, or voice,
that run on wireless networks.
- 802.11i A
proposed IEEE standard that would provide added security
specific to wireless LANs.
- 802.11n An IEEE
WLAN standard, proposed for release in 2005 or 2006, which is
expected to reach speeds between 100 and 320 Mbps.
- Enhanced-performance 802.11g
A blanket term for various proprietary technologies that boost
throughput of 802.11g devices by implementing methods such as
frame bursting, channel trunking (or bonding), and shortening
the preamble.
- Frame bursting A
technology created to enhance 802.11g performance by allowing
the transmission of more data packets (carried in frames) in a
given amount of time.
- MAC (media-access control)
address A hard-coded or permanent address applied to hardware at
the factory.
- NAT (Network Address Translation)
A security technique—generally applied by a router—that makes
many different IP addresses on an internal network appear to the
Internet as a single address. Thus, the specifics of the
internal network remain hidden.
- Preamble A
preliminary signal that network hardware transmits to control
signal detection and clock synchronization in a wired or
wireless network.
- RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User
Service) An authentication and
accounting system that verifies users' credentials and grants
access to requested resources.
- Roaming Moving
from one access point to another in a WLAN with uninterrupted
connections.
- Router A device
that links two discrete networks and forwards packets between
them. A router uses a networking protocol such as IP to address
and direct packets flowing into and out of its network. A home
or small-office router often includes a four-port switch, which
handles moving data inside the network from one device to
another.
- Shared key An
encryption key known only to the receiver and sender of data.
- SPI (stateful packet inspection)
A type of firewall that uses either a predefined or an editable
rule set to determine whether packets are going to be forwarded
or denied.
- SSID (service set identifier)
A unique 32-character password that is assigned to every WLAN
device and detected when one device sends data packets to
another.
- UDP (User Datagram Protocol)
A connectionless protocol that runs on top of IP networks.
Unlike TCP/IP, UDP/IP provides very few error recovery services.
Instead, it offers a direct way to send and receive datagrams
over an IP network. UDP is used primarily for broadcasting
messages over a network.
- UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)
An architecture that allows easy connection between PCs and
other devices using TCP/IP and a derivative of HTTP. It lets
each device automatically acquire a network address and announce
its presence to other devices on the network.
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